Senator Recto said the “No Philhealth ID, No Benefits” policy is one of the provision crafted by Senate to guarantee universal health coverage.
No Philhealth ID? No problem! The Senate has included in the proposed P3.35 trillion national budget a provision that cancels the need for patients seeking medical attention in hospitals to present a Philippine Health Insurance (Philhealth) card as a condition to avail benefits from the state health insurer.
According to Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto, the scrapping of the “No Philhealth ID, No Benefits” policy is one of the many provisions crafted y the Senate to ensure universal health coverage among Filipinos.
Senator Recto sponsored the budget provision that in the attainment of universal coverage, all Filipinos, whether a Philhealth member or not, shall avail of benefits from the state insurer.
By this, a Philhealth ID is not anymore necessary to avail of benefits.
Recto’s sponsored budget provision forms part of the 2017 General Appropriations Bill that President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to sign before December 2016 closes.
Senator Loren Legarda initially pushed for a P3 billion appropriation to Philhealth for the payment of the insurance premiums of the estimated “last eight million Filipinos” who are not insured.
According to Senator Recto, the number of Filipinos yet uninsured under Philhealth was only discovered in the course of the deliberations on the 2017 annual budget.
He pointed out that “because the Senate did its job, the discrepancy was found”.
Legarda’s push for the P3 billion infusion on the budget is expected to “close the last mile in health insurance”.
Recto said the measure would mean the culmination of a long work process through successive administrations.
There were an initial 200 thousand urban poor families who were enrolled to Philhealth in 2001, sponsored by the state under the administration of then President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
The number of the sponsored beneficiaries hiked annually and by 2010, the individuals covered by the health insurance, including those who pay for themselves, reached 78 million.
Former President Benigno Aquino III, who was president in 2010, added another 20 million enrollees, increased the paying members to an approximately 45 million, retained the previous grantees and expanded the benefits the members can avail of.
The infusion of the Senate resulted to the increase of funding for Philhealth social insurance program to P53.2 billion.
The appropriation will cover 15.4 billion families among the “poorest of the poor”, 3.3 to 5.5 million senior citizens and 48 thousand individuals under the PAMANA program, which is the government peace and reconciliation effort.
Included in the coverage is the last eight million uninsured Filipinos.